How Much Does It Cost to Start an Online Store in Singapore?
Starting an online store in Singapore typically costs anywhere from S$0–20/month for a lean, PayNow-native storefront to S$150–300+/month for a full-featured global platform once subscription fees, card-processing fees, and apps are included.
Last updated: August 2026
The biggest cost differences come from three things: the platform's subscription fee, whether it charges a percentage on every sale, and which payment methods you rely on. Here's the actual breakdown.
The Three Cost Components Every Online Store Has
- Platform / subscription fee — what you pay to have a storefront exist at all (theme, hosting, product catalog, checkout page).
- Payment processing fees — what's taken out of each sale by whatever handles the actual money movement (card gateway, PayNow gateway, etc.).
- Extras — a domain name (roughly S$15–30/year), premium themes, and paid apps for things like email marketing, reviews, or inventory tools, which are optional but add up quickly on larger platforms.
The mistake most first-time sellers make is comparing only the headline subscription price and ignoring #2 — which, for a card-heavy platform, is often the larger cost over a year.
Option 1: A Global All-in-One Platform (e.g. Shopify)
Shopify's entry-level plan for a full storefront starts at roughly US$29–39/month (paid annually vs. monthly), which converts to roughly S$40–55/month depending on the exchange rate at the time. On top of that, card transactions typically carry a processing fee in the range of 2.9% + US$0.30 per transaction when using the platform's own built-in payment processor — and if that built-in processor isn't available or isn't used in your market, an additional surcharge (commonly around 1–2%) can apply on top of whatever your third-party gateway charges. Most real-world stores also end up paying for at least a handful of paid apps, which commonly adds another S$30–150+/month.
Best fit: sellers who need multi-currency support, international sales, complex inventory, or plan to scale into a larger catalog.
Option 2: A Payment Gateway Bolted Onto a DIY Setup (e.g. HitPay)
Singapore-based gateways like HitPay take a different approach: no monthly fee at all, charging purely per transaction — currently around 0.65% + S$0.30 for PayNow payments of S$100 or more (rising to about 0.9%, minimum S$0.20, for smaller amounts), and roughly 2.8% + S$0.50 for domestic card payments. This is meaningfully cheaper per-transaction than card-based platforms, especially for PayNow-heavy sales.
The catch: a payment gateway isn't a storefront. HitPay and similar tools generate payment links and QR codes, but you still need somewhere to actually list and showcase products — a separate website, a page builder, or manually sending payment links over chat. For a seller who already has a site or is comfortable running sales through payment links and social posts, this can be the cheapest option. For a seller who wants an actual browsable store, it's an incomplete answer on its own.
Best fit: sellers who already have a website or are comfortable operating via payment links rather than a browsable catalog.
Option 3: A Singapore-Specific, PayNow-Native Storefront (e.g. LemonStand)
LemonStand combines a storefront (theme, product catalog, shareable link) with PayNow-native checkout in one flat-fee product: free to build, then from S$3.90/week (roughly S$17/month) once the store goes live, with 0% transaction fees on top. Because checkout is built natively on PayNow rather than a card gateway, there's no separate payment gateway application process to go through.
Best fit: Singapore-based social sellers and micro-merchants who want an actual storefront (not just payment links) without the subscription-plus-percentage cost structure of a global platform.
A Worked Example
Take a seller doing S$2,000/month in sales, averaging 40 orders at S$50 each, almost entirely via PayNow:
| Platform | Monthly platform fee | Approx. transaction fees | Approx. total/month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify (Basic, card processing) | ~S$40–55 | ~2.9% + $0.30/order → ~S$70 | ~S$110–125 |
| HitPay (gateway only, needs separate storefront) | S$0 (gateway) + cost of a separate site | 0.9% on sub-S$100 orders → ~S$18 | ~S$18 + storefront cost |
| LemonStand | ~S$17 (flat) | 0% | ~S$17 |
Caveat: these are illustrative estimates based on published list pricing at the time of writing, converted at approximate exchange rates. Card-processing rates, plan pricing, and currency conversion all shift over time — check each provider's current pricing page before making a decision, and note that platform fees like Shopify's are typically billed in USD, so your actual SGD cost will move with the exchange rate.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the cheapest way to start selling online in Singapore?
For a lean setup with genuinely no upfront cost, a free-to-build storefront with a flat, low weekly fee and no transaction percentage (like LemonStand) or a pure pay-per-transaction gateway bolted onto an existing site or social page (like HitPay) will generally beat a global subscription platform's total cost for low-to-moderate sales volumes.
Do I need a business registration (ACRA) to sell online in Singapore?
This depends on your sales volume and structure — it's worth checking current guidance directly from ACRA, since requirements and thresholds can change and this isn't something to rely on secondhand summaries for.
Are transaction fees or subscription fees the bigger cost over a year?
For most small sellers doing under a few thousand dollars a month, percentage-based transaction fees on a card-heavy platform typically add up to more than the subscription fee itself — which is why a platform's effective cost only becomes clear once you model it against your actual sales volume and average order size, not just the advertised monthly price.
Does PayNow itself cost anything to accept?
PayNow as a payment rail is generally low-cost or free for retail transfers between individuals; the fees discussed above come from the platform or gateway facilitating the checkout experience around it, not from PayNow itself.
Related guides
- How to Turn a WhatsApp or Instagram Selling Side Hustle Into a Real Online Store — Replace DM order-taking with a shareable storefront and automated PayNow checkout.